Paper Info
Title
Using agent-based simulation to understand populatation dynamics and coevolution in host-pathogen relationships.
Abstract
The development of anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria and the nearly annual emergence of new strains of influenza virus are evidence of the rapid adaptation of pathogens to environmental pressures. The ability to predict the outcome of a long-term host-pathogen interaction could significantly improve public health decisions. Starting from the premise that all interactions between hosts and pathogens are stochastic in nature, we developed a generic agent based simulation of a population of hosts infected by a population of pathogens. Our simulation suggests that a host population is not intrinsically stable absent negative feedback loop mechanisms. We show that even in the face of a specific pathogen pressure, the outcome of a given initial host-pathogen community can be expressed only as a set of probabilities, unlike the prediction of traditional mathematical models constructed in the language of differential calculus.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1109/WSC.2015.7408424
Winter Simulation Conference
Field
DocType
ISSN
Population,Coevolution,Systems engineering,Computer science,Negative feedback,Premise,Differential calculus,Computational biology,Pathogen
Conference
0891-7736
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-4673-9741-4
0
0.34
References 
Authors
1
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Roy Williams100.34
Scott Williams200.34
Amar K. Das342051.09